sand

There is a flying saucer sailing down a river in Vietnam. A YouTuber built it in his yard with sand, scrap metal and fiberglass

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Some time ago Thanh Cheaka ‘Mr. Ho’, a youtuber Vietnamese with more than 1.4 million subscribers, had a crazy idea: to sail the rivers of his country with a flying template. Literally. For anyone else, an idea like that would have remained just that: a crazy dream. It took Mr. Ho to get to work and build a kind of boat made with little more than sand, fiberglass and the propulsion system of a jet ski. However, the most curious thing is not the result, but the process. Mr. Ho Thanh Che. To ‘Mr. He’s up for challenges. Especially those that involve assembling (or repairing) motorized devices with materials that anyone could find without too many complications. In recent years this has led it to manufacture your own boatstart a car that had been rotting for years in the middle of the jungle, ride a vehicle with materials taken from a landfill or designing a jet ski shaped like a giant spider. A water UFO. As if all of the above were not enough, some time ago Mr. Ho decided to go one step further and create a flying saucer capable of crossing the rivers of Vietnam at full speed. It sounds crazy (and it is), but that’s just what the youtuber shows in a video of just one hour in which he documents the entire process: from the moment he imagines the design (in his dreams) to the moment he takes his ‘flying saucer boat’ into the water. The challenge is so fascinating that the video has more than 30 million views. And that’s just on Mr. Ho’s personal account. The piece has been shared on other channels in which it accumulates thousands and thousands of views. Nothing surprising if we take into account that the youtuber It does not have a large workshop, nor access to exclusive parts. In his projects (including the UFO project) he uses the resources he has at hand, even if sometimes they are little more than scrap metal. playing with sand. The most curious thing about the project is how it starts. For someone with access to industrial molds or modern milling machines, manufacturing the hull of the flying saucer wouldn’t have much substance. Mr. Ho had to settle for a solution more rudimentary: He traced the silhouette of the saucer on the ground of a patio, piled sand on top, and then shaped the mound with the help of a rotating arm made from scrap metal. The goal: create a symmetrical dome. That kind of sand shell served as his starting point. Then the youtuber He poured cement, consolidated the shape and used it as a framework to make the two halves of the hull (aka space saucer) with fiberglass. By hand. Step by step. With the same patience that would be used to make a piece of craftsmanship. With the helmet ready, he opened several hexagonal-shaped holes. Under way. To move the ‘flying saucer boat’, Mr. Ho opted for a solution similar to that of jet skis: a hydrojet systemjet propulsion, which is powered by an engine allows a turbine to absorb water and then expel it at high pressure. Among other things, this avoids external propellers. So that his particular flying saucer could be handled more easily, the youtuber used a deflector attached to a cable that in turn directs the water jet. The video shows how that solution allows you to direct the jet and make tight turns. As it is housed in a hollow cavity in the inner hull, the engine does not break the spaceship aesthetic that its creator wanted to give it. A carpeted flying saucer. On this occasion Mr. Ho was not satisfied with creating a boat in the shape of a flying jig. He also wanted to take care of the details of the design. Both external and internal. On the outside it included LEDs, solar panels and a dark gray color that gives the result an aesthetic that is partly (partly) reminiscent of the B-2 bombers of the USAF. Inside, Ho opted for the same philosophy: taking care of the details, including carpet, soundproofing and tinted acrylic windows. In a nod to his main platform as a creator, he gave the ship a yoke-type steering wheel with the YouTube logo. It is difficult to determine whether the pilot is traveling comfortably, but the video of the maiden voyage It shows that at least the ship is stable and fast. Images | Tech Freeze, Mr Ho Via | Passion Engine In Xataka | Engineers (and not aliens) have created a flying saucer that flies and is completely functional

Arab Emirates has oil and desert in abundance. Now they have discovered how to take advantage of sand: turning it into brick

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Although transport or energy are the sectors that first come to mind when we talk about emissions, there is a third industry with a comparable share of responsibility: construction, responsible for 34% of global CO₂ emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. The problem is in the materials: manufacturing a ton of Portland cement emits between 0.6 and 0.8 tons of CO₂ both due to the energy consumed in the process and the chemical reaction that produces it. So any idea to replace classic construction materials such as concrete and brick is good to decarbonize the industry. We have already seen alternatives such as the shells on the beachbut to a company in Dubai Another idea has occurred to him: instead of importing materials, manufacture them with abundant resources in the area. More specifically, with sand and date seeds. The invention. The star product of ARDH Collective, which is the name of the Dubai company formed by Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Máximo Tettamanzi, is DuneCrete: An alternative to concrete made from locally sourced desert sand, which reduces cement content by 50%. From there they manufacture the DuneBlockthe building blocks. In their product catalog they also have the Dateforma material that reuses 1,000 date seeds per square meter. Why is it important. Because after water, sand is the second resource we consume the most. The United Nations Environment Program esteem that up to 50,000 million tons of sand and gravel are consumed annually worldwide. Removing sand from rivers and coastal ecosystems causes erosion, damages water supplies, harms biodiversity and reduces storm protection, so replacing it with underused desert sand would be a turning point. DuneCrete reduces cement content by 50%, which according to its founders represents approximately half the carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional concrete. It makes sense: Portland cement alone is responsible for 8% of global emissions and its footprint does not disappear using renewable energy, since much of it comes from a chemical reaction, not from burning fuel. Context. Paradoxically, the UAE has to import sand even though it is basically a desert. The underlying problem is that desert sand particles are rounded due to wind erosion, which makes their adhesion in conventional concrete mixtures difficult, while river sand has more angular particles that favor compaction and resistance. In detail. This project arose during a master’s degree at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. After obtaining a couple of grants totaling $8,000, they began research in a laboratory that they set up in the garage of one of their homes in Dubai during the pandemic. That was where they found the formula that stabilized the mixture with desert sand. Laboratory tests confirmed that the material met the resistance standards necessary for commercial development. The company start production in 2021. Yes, but. Once the problem of the geometry of desert sand has been solved, there is another obstacle to solve to scale the project: its morphology varies enormously by region and is not homogeneous. ARDHCollective affirms DuneCrete is “just as strong” as conventional concrete, but there are no academic publications or third-party test reports to support its mechanical properties. Simply put, the transformative potential of this DuneCrete remains to be seen. In Xataka | A young woman from Kenya has developed brick 2.0: the main ingredient is the plastic of the shampoo bottle In Xataka | We have just reinvented the brick. It is just as it was millennia ago Cover | ARDHCollective and Fredrik Öhlander

Geologists studied the sand on one of the D-Day beaches in Normandy. They discovered that 4% is still shrapnel

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More than 80 years have passed since “D-Day” and yet his memory is still very present on the beaches of Normandy. And not in an ethereal and symbolic way. No. Beyond memory, the landing of the allied troops in the French region in June 1944 maintains a palpable mark on its sandy shores. One that can be touched and seen, although the latter requires an electron microscope. This was confirmed years ago by a group of geologists who collected a sample of sand on Omaha Beach. When they took it to their laboratory and studied it in detail, they discovered, astonished, that 4% were actually shrapnel remains. A microscopic memory of a historical date. Walking in Normandy. That’s what the Geology professor did one day in 1988. Earle McBrideof the University of Texas at Austin, and his colleague Dane Picard, of the University of Utah. While conducting a field study in France they decided to take a break and visit the famous Omaha Beachone of the main landing points for D-Day in Normandy. They didn’t have much luck with their Norman voyage. The day they walked along the sandy beach, which is around eight kilometers long, was unpleasant, cold and windy; But that didn’t stop McBride and Picard from taking home a souvenir that honored their training: a small sample of sand. Some time later they decided to rescue the bag with those Normandy beans and observe them under the microscope. And the surprise came. What McBride found in that sample of sand collected at Omaha Beach caught his attention. In addition to remains of quartz and other materials that he already took for granted, the geologist observed tiny metal fragments. When studying them in detail with the microscope, he found that they had a rounded shape, were rough, laminated and had a dull shine, with some spots of rust. Some pieces were around a millimeter. Others did not go beyond 0.06mm. The remains of the battle. Thus, reduced to millimeter metal beads eroded by waves and the passage of time, they may have been difficult to identify, but McBride ended up reaching a fascinating conclusion. What he had before him were vestiges of the Normandy landings. “They turned out to be shrapnel from the World War II invasion. Upon closer examination, he also saw iron and glass beads that had resulted from the intense heat unleashed by the explosions in the air and sand,” detail from the University of Texas at Austin. His discovery was so curious that, together with PicardProfessor McBride decided to prepare an article and publish it in the magazine The Sedimentary Record. Foreseeable. “Of course it is not surprising that shrapnel was added to the sand on Omaha Beach at the time of the battle, but it is surprising that it has survived more than 40 years and is undoubtedly still there today,” they commented both experts. His sample was from the late 80s and the report They published it in 2011; but everything indicates that the situation remains similar today. In 2011 the experts they calculated that corrosion would still take a century to destroy the shrapnel grains. A well-measurable footprint. If McBride and Picard’s study is surprising, it is because it has done more than just confirm that—decades after D-Day—remnants of shrapnel are still scattered along the beaches of Normandy. Equally or more curiously, experts have managed to provide a fairly precise idea of ​​what that footprint in the sands represents. After examining the sample in detail, the Texas geologist confirmed that the metals make up 4% of sand. The data is illustrative, although McBride and Picard slip that there could be variations depending on where and when the sand is collected. “Due to possible plasticization of shrapnel and heavy minerals by waves and currents on the day we collected our sample, we do not know to what extent it is representative of beach sand as a whole.” Omaha was one of the major landing points on D-Day, but there were other beaches in Normandy that the Allies reached in the Operation Neptune. Today they are known as Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno. With expiration date. Although the beads discovered by American geologists are a peculiar souvenir of D-Day and have survived decades, McBride and Picard warned years ago that they will not last forever. The shrapnel remains could resist erosion for millennia, but when studying the grains, geologists discovered rust particles, leading them to be pessimistic about their future. “The waves agitate the iron fragments, which in turn removes some of the rust and exposes fresh material, more prone to oxidation, which in turn falls away, and so on,” points out the University of Texas. A century of memory. “The result is that they will become smaller and smaller and eventually storms or hurricanes will drag them off the beach,” McBride reflected in 2011. Their calculations suggested that the 4% of shrapnel identified at Omaha Beach would be reduced to insignificance in a matter of a century. They will remain to remember the Allied landing, yes, the monuments and the memory. Image | Person-with-No Name (Flickr) In Xataka | The US landed on an empty island during World War II. In nine days it had more than 300 casualties *An earlier version of this article was published in June 2024

move two million tons of sand

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The paradisiacal coastline of the central Algarve is facing one of the great coastal problems of recent decades, the result of rising sea levels and extreme weather events happening more and more often: the ocean is swallowing its beaches. So he has left behind the classic breakwaters to carry out one of the most ambitious coastal regenerations of its history: moving more than two million tons of sand from the seabed to the shore. There is no beach in the Algarve. The problem of erosion in the area of ​​Forte Novo beach and Garrão beach (both in the municipality of Loulé, Faro district) is not new, but this winter’s storms aggravated it in a worrying way, as explains the Portuguese Environment Agency: Their records have documented a maximum retreat of up to 15 meters on Loulé Velho-Trafal beach and 14 meters in the Quarteira-Garrão area. On Forte Novo beach, a retreat of an additional six meters was detected. These data place this section as one of the most critical in all of continental Portugal. Why is it important. Coastal erosion represents a real physical risk for the population and infrastructure: when the sand of a beach recedes in a sustained manner, the coast is directly exposed to the waves, which accelerates the erosion of cliffs, threatens nearby infrastructure and destroys the associated dune ecosystems. According to a report By 2024 published on the European Union’s Copernicus science platform, between 27 and 40 percent of European sandy coasts are experiencing active retreat, with special incidence in the Mediterranean and the Iberian Atlantic. On the other hand, the Algarve is one of the great tourist engines of Portugal. The region recorded more than 20 million overnight stays in 2023, according to the National Institute of Statistics Portuguese and in 2025 concentrated 85 beaches with the Blue Flag, the highest European certification of coastal quality. Losing beaches means losing its main economic asset, which mostly lives off of sun and sea tourism. Coastal erosion patterns in Europe. European Environment Agency Context. This intervention is part of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Strategy of Portugal, which aims to achieve a harmoniously and sustainably developed coastal area within a period of 20 years (in force since 2009). The APA has already carried out similar and even larger operations: it holds the record Figueira da Foz, where it moved more than 3.3 million cubic meters of sediments in the Cova-Gala/Costa de Lavos section, with an investment of 21.1 million euros. The Quarteira-Garrão operation is, therefore, the second major operation of this type in just over a year, which reflects the State’s policy on coastal protection. The Quarteira-Garrão project is the technical response to a regional-scale problem of the erosive dynamics that affects the entire Gulf of Cádiz. Portugal has opted for large contributions of sand instead of building rigid rock breakwaters, following European trends. These types of solutions seek to have a lower visual impact and better integration into the dynamic coastal ecosystem. In figures. The operation, without being the largest in the history of Portugal, it has some numbers that impact: Transfer of approximately 1.4 million cubic meters of sand (about two million tons). Rehabilitation of 6.7 kilometers of coastline. Planned average widening of 37 meters. Tender budget: 14.9 million euros. How are they doing it. The technique that Portugal is applying is called artificial beach feeding or beach nourishment and consists of extracting sediments from nearby underwater areas and depositing them on the shore through dredging and pipelines. The project has been executed in phases, section by section and in coordination with the Cultural Heritage Agency of Portugal and after an environmental impact assessment: on the one hand, to control the deposition of sediments at each point avoiding saturation and on the other, because this underwater extraction area contains remains of underwater archaeological heritage. The works began between April 2 and 3 and completion was scheduled for May 6, in time for the beginning of the bathing season. Yes, but. The artificial regeneration of beaches is an effective solution in the short and medium term, but it does not solve the underlying problem as science warns: the deposited sand moves again due to the action of waves, currents and storms. In most cases documented in Europeregenerated beaches require new intervention after a few years (it can be more than a decade), depending on the energy exposure of the coast. The underlying structural problem is the chronic loss of sediment throughout the coastal system, aggravated by climate change, the rise in sea level and the reduction in the river supply of sand caused by the regulation of rivers with dams. If these causes are not solved comprehensively, beach recharge is putting a patch on. In fact, the APA itself recognizes it by framing the intervention within a broader coastal protection strategy and continuously monitoring for the next action. In Xataka | Portugal’s radical proposal to stop touristification: an underwater cable that connects with the US In Xataka | “I am an engineer, politics is not my profession”: the mayor of Lisbon has turned it into a magnet for European startups Cover | Bengt Nyman and Ludovico Ceroseis

We’ve found the secret ingredient for using desert sand in construction: sawdust and a giant sandwich maker

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At a time when humans do not stop building and erecting large buildings, there is a problem that should concern us more and more: there is a lack of sand to make concrete. But here anyone can laugh, since we have great deserts on the planet where there is a huge amount of sand that we could use without any problem. But it’s not that easy. The problem. Today, traditional concrete is quite exquisite, since river sand is necessary to achieve a good result. And it has to be that way, because the desert sand is too round and fine to be able to “stick” well. But the truth is that we were running out of this sand so necessary to continue building. In Xataka The rain has transformed the driest desert on the planet into a sea of ​​flowers. It’s a sight to behold and a problem for experts We have a solution. The University of Tokyo and the University of Norway they have hit the key to turn the tables, and the solution is not only to use the desert sand that a priori we have left over, but rather it is to mix it with plant waste to create a material that has received the name Botanical Sandcrete. The recipe. The recently published study details a process that deviates from traditional cement setting, using a hot-pressing technique instead. And for this you only need two ingredients: Fine desert sand which, as we have said before, is useless for conventional concrete due to its morphology. Wood particles and plant additives that act as organic “glue.” All this, together with a temperature of 180 ºC and high pressure, means that the wood components help create a solid matrix that traps the grains of sand and transforms them into a handful of powder in a block that has great mechanical properties. {“videoId”:”x7znesx”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Self-consumption building THIS IS HOW THEY WORK – Solar panels in apartment blocks”, “tag”:”solar”, “duration”:”564″} What is it for? Here we should not be happy to find an alternative to a problem that we already had on our heads, since we are not going to be able to build skyscrapers with these tomorrow. Here the researchers point out that the material, as it is right now, is a non-structural alternative.  In this way, its use is mainly focused on pavements, urban tiles and enclosure blocks or outdoor furniture. Things that are ultimately not pillars for large buildings, but do allow us to save river sand. Your advantage. Having an alternative, although it cannot be used in everything, allows us to drastically reduce dependence on quarries and the transportation of river sand. An action that results in the destruction of river ecosystems around the world by removing a fundamental element. In addition to all this, using wood waste and plant additives means that it has a much smaller potential carbon footprint than concrete based on classic cement. In Xataka 30 years ago the US was the country that dominated rare earths. This graph shows how China devastated at dizzying speed Its importance. To date, most attempts to use desert sand involved expensive chemical treatments or mixing them in very low percentages with conventional sand. But the focus of these researchers involves the use of biomass, making us a perfect example of a circular economy. And if we see the full context of the situation, we are taking advantage of a resource that is very abundant but a priori useless like desert sand, along with a byproduct of the logging industry. But logically it still remains to be seen how it behaves over time and how well it endures adverse conditions. Although a priori we are facing great news. Images | Keith Hardy rawpixel.com In Xataka | A 29-year-old young man has invented a cement that makes magnetic walls: a solution to hang things without a drill or screws (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news We’ve found the secret ingredient for using desert sand in construction: sawdust and a giant sandwich maker was originally published in Xataka by José A. Lizana .

transforming desert sand into the cheapest and most durable road material in Africa

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Honda is experiencing one of its most complicated moments. On the one hand, it has canceled several launches of its electric cars in North America, has paralyzed the development of Afeela which it developed in collaboration with Sony and has announced losses of around $15.7 billion. Now they are in a moment of restructuring to get out of the slump, but they have not left aside some of their most experimental projects. One of them is PathAhead, a startup that emerged from its internal incubator that has presented a construction material made of desert sand with which it intends to pave roads in Africa. The problem they want to solve. Only about 20% of African roads are paved, according to data from Honda itself. This figure has a direct impact on the region’s economy, since in the end a place where transportation access is difficult makes logistics more expensive, limits access to markets and slows down development. Furthermore, according to the firm, conventional materials for road construction (natural sand and crushed stone) present variations in resistance depending on their geological origin, which makes it difficult to guarantee uniform quality. The solution: desert sand turned into arid. As we have mentioned before, the company behind this project is called PathAhead, and it has developed a material that it calls Rising Sand. The company describes it as the world’s first artificial aggregate made from desert sand. The process consists of agglomerating fine grains of sand (about 100 micrometers in diameter) into larger, more uniform particles using heat and pressure, increasing their resistance. Image: Nikkei Asia The result, according to the company, is roads with a useful life of more than 20 years, double that of those built with conventional materials, and a life cycle cost that is 60% lower, according to its estimates. The deployment plan. PathAhead plans to begin demonstration trials in Kenya in 2027, followed by Tanzania and South Africa. If the results are positive, mass production will begin in 2028 in its own factory in that country. The startup’s financial goal is to reach revenue of $270 million by 2034. The company has so far raised about 136 million yen (approximately $850,000), with Honda as one of its investors. Where PathAhead comes from. The startup was born within the Ignition program, which Honda launched in 2017 to encourage the creation of new businesses among its employees. Masayuki Iga, its founder and CEO, worked for years at Honda’s research center developing automotive materials. “I created PathAhead with the desire to apply the technologies and knowledge accumulated in that experience to directly address the challenges of our society,” declared Iga during the presentation in Tokyo. Why it draws attention now. Sling has increased its spending on R&D by 55% in the last five years, to exceed one trillion yen in the recently closed fiscal year. That the company maintains and even expands its commitment to internal innovation while undergoing a profound restructuring of its core business is, at the very least, a sign that it does not want to reduce its long-term bets. If PathAhead can prove that its material works on an industrial scale, it could become more than just an experimental project. We’ll see if it ends up having a place in the industry. Cover image | Sling In Xataka | The car industry has condemned the manual gear shift to extinction. A company wants to avoid it: BMW

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates import millions of tons of sand every year despite living on immense deserts

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The story is striking in itself: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries closely associated with the desert, import tons and tons of sand every year. So striking, in fact, that the first intuition is that it is false. But, as soon as you get closer to it, you discover that not only is it true, but it is more interesting than it seems. Because yes, these countries import a lot of sand. In 2023, only the United Arab Emirates bought more than six million tons. And it is surprising, of course, because these are two countries located on enormous deserts. The explanation, however, is simple: the sand they have is not suitable for certain things. At a technical level, what is known as “eolian sand” (that which the wind accumulates in dunes) is very fine, very uniform and very rounded. That makes it a poor sand for making glass, concrete or other industrial products. It is not that it cannot be used, but it requires adjusting the mixtures, controlling the granulometry and impurities (fines), and carefully balancing the manufacturing processes. That is to say, the process ends up becoming so expensive that it is cheaper to import sand that is more suitable for standardized processes. And this, ultimately, should not surprise us. Sand is, today, the second most exploited resource in the world (only after water). The United Nations Environment Program estimates that every year 50,000 million tons of sand and gravel are used. What’s more, the lack of sand is so obvious that there are criminal networks that traffic with her internationally. However, we are not talking about just any sand. There are, as is evident, many types of sand. For what is not interesting today we can distinguish natural sand (HS 250590) and siliceous/quartz sand (HS 250510). The Gulf countries import, above all, the second. Emirates, to give an example, is spent half a million a year in the first and 87 million in the second. That is to say, although they are countries ‘rich’ in sand, they do not have the sand they need. A sand, moreover, with very specific specifications (granulometry, purity, humidity, fines, contaminants, consistency of supply) and that are basic for glass, foundry, filtration or the chemical industry. However, they also import natural sand. And this is interesting because, as they point out in the UNthis only makes clear the significance of the problem of governance and externalities. Despite having usable sand, in many cases it is preferred to buy from other countries (such as Oman) to avoid the negative externalities of draining sand from their coasts and deserts. Something that can alter livelihoods (fishing, agriculture due to salinization, coastal tourism) and increase vulnerability to storms. In the summer of 2019, the couple who became famous was arrested in Sardinia for hiding 40 kilos of sand in his trunk. That was the anecdote, the problem was another: that beyond mass tourism, the tensions on the sand are increasingly greater. It is something that has only grown and is normal. The world is not here to do without one of its most valuable resources. Image | Lars Portjanow In Xataka | We are running out of sand. And there are already traffickers who negotiate with it in India or Morocco

China has been dumping tons of sand into the ocean for 12 years. And now we are seeing islands emerging in the middle of nowhere

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It has been more than a decade since China began a striking strategy of territorial expansion: throwing tons of sand into the South China Sea. This is not unique to China and, in fact, Japan thus built an airport that soon it will be an underwater airportbut China is doing it massively and with one objective: to claim what is its own. And seeing how they raise these artificial islands is… hypnotic. Context. The end of 2013 marked a turning point in China: the country started to massively fill in seven of the reefs of the Nansha and Xisha archipelagos (Spratly and Paracels, respectively). In record time between December of that year and June 2015, China carried out the first phase of the operation: the filling phase. From 2015 onwards, they have dedicated themselves to consolidate that territory through the construction of infrastructure such as landing strips, hangars, ports, radars and support structures. According to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, between December 2015 and October 2015, China had built artificially about 12 km² of land on the Nansha reefs. While the United States said it with concern, the Chinese media confirmed the information with pride. Before and then How they do it. They did not use overly complex methods to do so. On the one hand, they cut the coral bottom and pumped sediments to shallow areas. The earth was deposited as fill to later build dikes and retaining walls around the reef. The next step was to deposit more fill and, finally, large steamrollers and shovels were compacting that earth to give consistency to the whole. The last thing was to create paving, landing strips, roads and other infrastructure. The result is more than 12 km², and put in context they represent “17 times more land claimed in 20 months than all the other international claimants have achieved during the last 40 years.” In action. Seeing the satellite photos that show the before and after, something easy to do using the history function of Google Earth, is interesting, but seeing a timelapse of how one of these new territories has been built is, as I said, something hypnotic. An example, the following video ‘tweet‘ (if you can’t see it, click on it): Narrative. What motivation does China have for such a deployment of resources and money? It depends who you ask. On the one hand, the Chinese government has defended that the creation of these islands serves the support in rescue missions on the high seasalso to fishing, scientific research, navigation support points thanks to these radars and the collection of data for its meteorological service. Finally, it also serves for defense if necessary. The neighbors are not convinced by the explanation and, in fact, think that it is a strategy that responds to a single interest: claiming territories that China considers its property. The Ministry of Defense of Japan assures that these infrastructures allow a permanent Chinese presence in waters that do not belong to it, with offensive capacity in practically the entire South China Sea. Military. Recent reports, such as the one from CSIS in 2025, underlines that China’s recent near-perennial activity in the South China Sea has only been possible thanks to that decade-old construction work. Western analyzes they point that the runways for aircraft are prepared for combat aircraft and land transport, as well as the presence of ports for warships, underground facilities and even missile platforms. The tension is evident because Beijing claims sovereignty over territories that its neighbors deny. Those neighbors are Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan or the Philippines. And Vietnam, in fact, is doing the same thing as China in 2013: throwing land into the sea. Their progress has also been considerable in a short time in an area that has become a real hotbed. The ecological impact. But beyond the intentions of each other, something undeniable that cannot be hidden under any narrative is the environmental damage that these artificial islands cause to their surroundings. In some articles it has been indicated that this ‘island’ desire has caused the loss of some 12 to 18 km² of reef, damaging some of the best preserved reefs in the region directly, but also affecting distant systems due to the ‘clouds’ of sediment formed during the dumping of sediments. Chinese scientific articles have also shown that these practices eliminate completely the ecosystem of the occupied area and negatively affects currents and sediment patterns, causing the aforementioned degradation of neighboring areas. However, the State Oceanic Administration of China defend that all projects were thoroughly evaluated and do not harm corals. The fault of it? Global trends such as sea acidification or climate change. Images | Ma Wukong In Xataka | China is building something that looks like an oil well. It is actually a nuclear bunker with a command center

In Madrid there are 24 tons of Canarian volcanic sand giving tumbos. So they will become a “dry garden”

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Every summer has its informative soap opera. That is no novelty. What is less common is that, As is happening In La Palma, a few sacks of sand star. It sounds strange, but after all it is the history of the 24 tons of volcanic sand that in May 1,800 kilometers traveled to value the Canarian culture and then ended up abandoned. From the case we already talk to you A few weeks ago. Now we finally know its conclusion, which is no less surprising. Volcanic sand … and traveling. A few months ago, in May, the Canary Authorities had a peculiar idea: they collected more than 20 tons of sand from Tajogaite volcano (La Palma), prepared it and put it in large bags and then uploaded it aboard a ship that transferred it to Cádiz, from where she traveled again on board trucks to Madrid. It took several days to cover the entire journey. Once in the capital they opened the sacks and scattered those blackish grains in the middle of Callao, drawing a huge, dark and bright circle. And all that, for what? To value the Canarian struggle, a popular sport on the islands, but that many do not know in the Peninsula. Coinciding with the Month of the Canary Islands, on May 17 the outdoor playing field was prepared in the Plaza de Callao and everything arranged so that two of the teams with the most footprint in the islands, the Saladar of Jandía and the Candelaria de Mirca, dispute in Madrid one of the most emblematic days of the DISA Government of the Canary Islands. As was in charge of emphasizing The regional government was the first time in the very extensive history of the island sport in which an official fighting day was held in the center of Madrid. But even so, to give it more epic, they decided that the fighters were measured on authentic volcanic land of La Palma. Hence the whole logistics deployment of sacks, permits, ship, trucks and crane. First stop: Callao Square. The experience was a success. In addition to the Arena, in Callao, stands were installed and the appointment attracted a nourished audience that included some authorities, such as the island president, Fernando Clavijo. “Fighting about the sand with which so many palm trees continue to fight to get ahead was a spectacular moment. We were recorded in memory,” Recognize in The Spanish newspaper (EPE) Lorena Hernández, general director of native sports of the regional government. At first, the sand, he remembers, sounded like “crazy”, but the idea went ahead for his “romanticism.” And what do I do with all this sand? That was the next question. Once the competition is over and the experience is over the next question was what to do with those 24 tons (some versions speak of 20) expelled in their day by the Tajogaipe volcano. They could take the way back to the palm. Or they could stay in Madrid as a gift, which was the idea that ended up. There were those who thought that the grains would be divinely in the Madrid volleyball pigs and for that purpose they reserved, but there was a problem: the sand was heated too much, so it was not a good idea to dedicate it to that end. Second stop: Torrelodones. The history of those volcanic sands ended A report With a suggestive headline: “Without a trace of the 24 tons of sand from the palm volcano that Canary Islands gave to Madrid for beach volleyball fields.” The newspaper said that the Consistory had no evidence that they went to dedicate volleyball sand to its volleyball fields. Apparently the material was lost track. The mystery did not last little. A day later the same medium revealed That the sand of discord was actually in a Torrelodones warehouse, where they accumulated dust waiting for the City Council to ultimately accept the sacks formally and look for a new use. Discarded the Volleyball fields and without short -term plans that the Canarian struggle was to take root in Madrid, then it was pointed out to be given a third use: environmental. Third stop: “Dry Garden”. The story seemed to conclude there, but EPE He has just contributed A new fact that (at least apparently) puts the end to the soap opera of volcanic sand, at least for the moment: instead of allocating sports clues, the sand will be dedicated to gardens. And not any kind. There is talk of “dry gardens.” One of the ideas on the table is to create a garden with low water consumption species and a typology similar to those that exist in the Canary Islands. Another option is to use it in other green spaces to take advantage of the properties of the material, of porous structure, good for drainage and that prevents the land from flooding. “It is a high material in minerals, in the Canary Islands it has worked wonderfully. If the sand can have a second use and create a green space with the sand of the palm, it will be wonderful,” Recognize Hernández. Why does it take so long? Simple: bureaucracy. The Cabildo had already prepared a document with the details of the donation, but now it is time to modify it: instead of allocating the sand to sports uses, it will be dedicated to the parks and gardens of Madrid. “Being a donation between public institutions, it requires a lot of paperwork. With this, we believe that we can put an end to management in one or two weeks,” they explain to EPE after specifying that a few days ago new documentation was requested. While the procedures advance in the offices, in the Torrelodones ship follows the one that is probably the most traveling sand in the history of the palm. Images | The Government of the Canary Islands (X) In Xataka | The Canary Islands have seven islands, but only one has escaped from the … Read more

The Canary Islands gave 24 tons of sand from La Palma volcano to Madrid. Now Madrid doesn’t know what to do with them

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Madrid has 24 tons of volcanic sand of the palm with which he does not know very well what to do. It sounds strange, but that is the peculiar outcome with which the consular and capital governments have been found after an initiative designed to value the Canarian cultural heritage in the Peninsula. The idea worked, but has ended up leaving that peculiar inheritance: bags and more bags of dark ash that accumulate dust (and controversy) without a clear destination. We explain ourselves. Presuming culture. May 17 was a day to frame in the history of Canarian culture. Or at least in one of its most popular disciplines: The Canarian fighta sport that hurts its roots in the first settlers of the islands. His practice is very popular in the archipelago, but not so much out. Hence, on May 17, as part of the Month of the Canary Islandsthe Government promoted A milestone In the discipline: the first day of official Canarian struggle in Madrid. FIGHTERS AND MUCH (MUCH) ARENA. For the appointment, fighters of the Saladar de Jandía and the Candelaria de Mircatwo key teams of the discipline that were measured in the twentieth day of the DISA Tournament of the Canary Islands. And something else: tons of volcanic sand transported from the palm to cover the pitch. The idea was to give even more epic to the appointment carrying a piece of the Canary Islands (literally) to Madrid and deploying it in the middle of Callao, where the Canarian fighters were measured. A 24 tons “ring”. The idea worked. The photos Shared by the Canarian government (with volcanic sand covering callus) they are fascinating and also show that the appointment attracted a good handful of curious. To host them, even a portable stand with capacity for 200 spectators. The event was also attended by President Fernando Clavijo along with regional positions and representatives of the institutional, sports and social life of the archipelago. In case that was not enough, the Executive took care of the last detail. Any type of volcanic sand was not transported to Madrid. No. The authorities chose ashes from the island of La Palma that were generated during the Tajogaite eruption In 2021. “The youngest of the islands, chosen as a symbol of identity, roots and renewal,” the Canarian government insisted in its community. In total some mobilized some 24 tonsaccording to the institution itself. And what happened to that sand? The fight was held on May 17, Jandía’s Salader won the Candelaria de Mirca in a fierce encounter (12-10), but … and then? What happened to tons of volcanic sand? That is the question that was asked recently eldiario.es, which after consulting with the Madrid City Council reached an amazing conclusion: the bags seemed to have vanished. “Without a trace of the 24 tons”, He titled The newspaper. The news was even more striking because, as confirmed by the regional government, the agreement contemplated that, after the May fight, the 24,000 kilos of ash were ceded to the Madrid City Council so that it could cover with it the fields of beach volleyball. From the Consistory they assured however not to have proof of that initiative. I wasn’t dead … It was not the last chapter of the curious soap opera of the traveling volcanic sand. On Saturday Eldiario.es published again Another revelation About the 24 tons of Tajogaite: the material was not lost by Madrid, but stored in work bags in a Torrelodones industrial ship. The reason? Although the initial idea was to allocate the sand to Madrid Volleyball courts, the authorities of the capital came to the conclusion that it was not a good idea to give it that use. His grains may serve for a Canarian fighting fight, but in the opinion of Madrid technicians they tend to heat up easily, which led the authorities to rule it out for the courts. And what will it be used for? It doesn’t seem to be very clear. At least according to the information handled by eldiario.es, which ensures that the Department of the Environment is looking for an adequate destination for the Canarian gift. The bags are also waiting for the Consistory Ultime for a collaboration agreement to accept the material, which, a priori, will have environmental use. In the authorization of the Cabildo it is noted that the material “lacks commercial value”, although as He put value The Canarian government does have a symbolic value. Images | The Government of the Canary Islands (X) and Canary Islands In Xataka | The Canary Islands have seven islands, but only one has escaped from the hordes of tourists: its secret is literally on earth

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